The play premiered at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles under the auspices of the Center Theatre Group. It won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and is described in press materials as an intricate crime drama and a haunting sci-fi.
In the play, set in the year 2050, The Nether offers complete freedom – a new virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. The play follows an investigation into the complicated, disturbing morality of identity in the digital world, and explores the consequences of making dreams a reality.
The West End run is being produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott M Delman and Tulchin Bartner Productions.
Original cast members Amanda Hale (Morris), Stanley Townsend (Sims) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Woodnut) are joined by Zoe Brough and Isabella Pappas, who will alternate the role of Iris as they did at the Royal Court. Final casting is still to be announced.
Set designs are by Es Devlin, with costume designs by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Paul Pyant, compositions by Nick Powell, sound by Ian Dickinson and video design by Luke Halls. Haley's previous plays include Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, which premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville at the 2008 Humana Festival, Breadcrumbs for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival and Sustainable Living written in the 2011-2012 CTG Writers' Workshop and featured at the Ojai Playwrights Conference. Her play Froggy is in development with The Banff Centre and American Conservatory Theater. Haley's plays have been developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Lark Play Development Center, PlayPenn, Page 73 and the MacDowell Colony. She is a member of New Dramatists in New York City and lives in Los Angeles where she founded a writing collective called the Playwrights Union.
The Nether was the first play Jeremy Herrin directed for Headlong as artistic director. Previously he was deputy artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre from 2009-2012 where his credits included No Quarter, Hero, Haunted Child, The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off the Endz, The Priory, Tusk Tusk, The Vertical Hour and That Face. He directed the world premieres of the stage versions of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in two parts for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which transferred to the West End's Aldwych Theatre and will re-open at Broadway's Winter Garden in 2015. He will also direct a new production of Michael Frayn's Noises Off for Roundabout Theatre Company.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 0844 871 3055, or visit www.thenether.co.uk for more details.
